Tag: An Nabi Saleh

Photo Essay: Demonstration in Nabi-Saleh

by David Langstaff

9th November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

Palestinians rallying for the weekly demonstration against the Israeli occupation and the confiscation of land and water resources by Zionist settlers. More than 100 Palestinians and solidarity activists from around the world turned out in support.
Palestinian children at the rally holding photos of a Palestinian political prisoner.
Marching against Israeli occupation and settler encroachment.
Palestinian children participating in the march.
Israeli military forces respond to the march by spraying demonstrators with “skunk water,” a synthetic liquid which gives off a putrid smell that can remain in a victim’s clothing for up to five years.
Israeli military forces used massive amounts of tear gas against Palestinians and solidarity activists throughout the entirety of the demonstration. In addition to tear gas and “skunk water,” the Israeli military fired rubber-coated steel bullets and sound grenades at demonstrators, and at several points used live ammunition.
Demonstrators attempt to construct a barrier to protect them from the repression of the Israeli military forces.
Demonstrators try to evade tear gas as the standoff with the Israeli military drags on.
Backpack of demonstrator protesting Israeli apartheid policies in occupied Hebron (al-Khalil).

Palestinian youth arrested and 4 detained at Nabi Saleh weekly demonstration

By Naseem Roberts

2nd November 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

One Palestinian Youth was arrested and four others: two Israelis and two internationals were detained during the Friday non-violent weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh.

People from the village met in the main square of the village from 11:30am onwards. At 12pm the demonstration began and everyone walked down the main street of the village singing songs and clapping along. Children were in the procession waving flags and chanting into the megaphone.

The demonstrators turned a corner and headed towards their objective: the natural spring to which the people of Nabi Saleh have been denied access to because of the illegal settlement of Halamish. This is the point at which the day turned ugly. In front of the demonstrators was a line of Israeli soldiers. At 12.30pm without any threat to the soldiers and without any warning, the Israeli military fired tear gas canisters directly into the demonstration while they were still inside the village. People carried on walking up the hill undaunted. The soldiers then fired tear gas canisters at head height, missing one person by mere inches. The demonstrators walked up as close as they could to the soldiers, waving flags and putting their hands in front of the guns as the soldiers aimed to prevent them from firing more tear gas into the village. Once more the children of Nabi Saleh came courageously to the forefront of the demonstration, waving their hands in victory signs and holding kaffiyas in front of the soldiers faces to prevent them firing their guns, singing songs and chanting as they did so. The Israeli military were forced back over the hill and down towards the spring, followed all the way by the men, women and children of Nabi Saleh.

At 1.05pm a cry came from behind the demonstrators that the Israeli military were arresting someone in the village. People went back to the village to find that Waed Bassim Tamimi aged 14 had been arrested. Waed’s mother raced to her sons aid. Two Israeli activists, a French journalist and an international activist were detained by the Israeli army while they were trying to support Waid’s mother’s remonstrations with the soldiers. After this seven or eight live rounds were fired at demonstrators in the village.

Only a few weeks ago Waed was injured when struck in the side by a tear gas grenade fired at him during the Friday demonstration. On Wednesday 24th of October Bassim Tamimi, Waed’s father was arrested by Israeli police officers suffering three broken ribs. Nabi Saleh encourages the involvement of the village’s children in their peaceful activities. The Israeli military can imprison the organizers of protests but the culture of non violent resistance lives strongly in the next generation of Nabi Saleh.

Naseem Roberts is a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (name has been changed).

Bassem Tamimi injured and arrested with 3 others at Boycott Israel protest

24 October 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

VIDEO from the action:


Dozens of Palestinians and internationals protest at Rami Levy Supermarket near the illegal settlement of Sha´ar Benyamin on October 24th. This direct action aims to highlight the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) Campaign that seeks to promote a boycott of Israeli goods.


Four people, including Bassem Tamimi, the head of the Popular Committee of Nabi Saleh, were arrested by Israeli police today as Palestinians staged a peaceful direct action in an Israeli supermarket near the illegal settlement of Shaar Binyamin, north of Ramallah, calling for a boycott of Israeli goods. Two Palestinians were injured and removed in ambulances. Before he was arrested, Tamimi’s ribs were reportedly broken.

Two of those arrested were international human rights activists. One is an American and the other is from Poland. The American activist was dragged away by four Israeli officers.

Starting at around ten this morning, Palestinians and international activists gathered in the parking lot of Rami Levi supermarket, which is frequented by Israelis from the surrounding illegal settlements. The activists entered the market and walked up and down the aisles, holding Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) placards and waving Palestinian flags.

Demonstrators left the market voluntarily when the Israeli army arrived on the scene. As activists exited the building, about forty police, border police and soldiers were waiting in the parking lot. There, the Israeli authorities attacked the demonstrators and fired sound bombs at them.

Even though the demonstrators remained non-violent, soldiers punched, dragged and choked them. As one Palestinian man was pulled away from the soldiers by other demonstrators, to prevent his arrest, his walking stick was taken away as he lay on the ground – following this, he could not walk without assistance. A sound bomb was thrown just metres from the head of another Palestinian man who was already unconscious following attacks from the authorities.

Bassem Tamimi is the head of the popular committee of Nabi Saleh, a village that has suffered drastically from the creation and expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Halamish settlement was created less than 1km away from Nabi Saleh, stealing a great deal of the villages’ land, as well as a spring that provided a vital water source for the village. Tamimi was released from prison in April of this year after spending 13 months in an Israeli prison for being accused of “taking part in illegal gatherings.” He was released on bail in April in order to take care of his elderly mother who had suffered a stroke.

The action today aimed to highlight the BDS campaign (www.bdsmovement.net ), which calls for a boycott of Israeli goods.

The status of the detained demonstrators is currently unknown, they remain held in the police station of the illegal settlement of Shaar Binyamin.

A Paletinian demonstrator gets arrested by Border Policemen during the protest at the Rami Levi Supermarket
A demonstrator gets first aid help after being injured by a sound grenade at the protest

Israeli Army shoots resident of Nabi Saleh following settler attack

By Paddy Clark

14 September 2012 | International Solidarity Movement, West Bank

On Sunday evening, settlers entered Nabi Saleh village. In clashes that followed Israeli soldiers shot Omar al-Tamini, 25, with live ammunition in the abdomen, and then arrested him and Eyas from inside the ambulance which was taking Omar to Ramallah hospital. On Monday, September 11 at 2:30 a.m., Israeli forces forced entry to homes in Nabi Saleh and arrested Mohammed, and Zeyad, younger brother of martyr, Mustafa Tamini.

Most of the local residents were at home on Monday as a result of the Palestinian general strike. Settlers entered the village in an attempted attack which was reported on PSCC. Residents of Nabi Saleh resisted the intrusion, and then clashes broke out between local youth and the military. Omar al-Tamimi was shot with live ammo during clashes which continued in to the night.

Later that night around 2.30 a.m, Israeli military invaded again (see video here.) They raided the family home of martyr, Mustafa Tamini, who suffered a fatal injury on December 9, 2011, after being shot in the face with a tear gas grenade from a distance of less than 10 meters (see photo here and video here.) Heavily armed soldiers once again, stood in the hall of their home, this time demanding another family member to be taken away to an Israeli jail.

I blog on Palestine and Resistance blogged;

“i feel so so angry that they had the nerve to go into that house once again, that they dared to harrass this family once more. its not even been a month since they released loai (20) from ofer military prison – and already when they had arrested him, in the middle of the night, from inside their home, barely two months after they had shot dead mustafa in cold blood in their own village, i (like so many others) could almost not believe it, felt so so enraged that they would enter their home again with their guns. it still makes me furious that they actually imprisoned loai – FROM INSIDE THEIR HOME – only two months after he saw his eldest brother bleed into the street in their village, before friends carried him into a car and away from him forever. (watch this video: loai, wearing a grey/black checkered jacket, can be first seen at 0:22). I still feel a mixture of rage and pain and i struggle to grasp that they not only murdered mustafa in the way they did, but that they did storm the house of the bereft family so shortly after and violently arrested the brother who actually saw mustafa dying, when they had only released his twin odai from military jail the day of mustafa’s funeral – AFTER the funeral. i still can’t grasp that odai heard in jail that someone in his village was severely injured, heard in jail that the injured young man was his eldest brother, heard in jail that it was a serious injury and that he might lose his eye, heard in jail that he might be fine after all, and heard in jail the next day that his brother was martyred. and that he was denied the right to spend that terrible day with his family and friends, with his twin brother.”

The legal office of Gabi Lasky said yesterday that Zayed and Mohammed were being detained at Ofer prison but was still unaware where Omar and his friend were being held.

For background information about the struggle and further information in Nabi Saleh see blog here

Paddy Clark is an activist and writer living in the West Bank (name has been changed).